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Developmental toxicity and neurotoxicity assessment of R-, S-, and RS-propylene glycol enantiomers in zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae

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Abstract

Propylene glycol (PG) is widely used in the foods, pharmaceuticals, oil industry, animal feed, cosmetics and other industries. Because of the existence of a chiral carbon center, PG forms R (Rectus)- and S (Sinister)-enantiomers. Currently, the toxicity study of its R-, S-enantiomers is still very scarce. In this study, we have assessed the developmental toxicity and neurotoxicity of the R-, S-, and RS-PG enantiomers in zebrafish larvae. We found that exposure to R-, S-, and RS-PG enantiomers did not significantly affect the basic developmental endpoints of embryos or larvae (i.e., embryonic movement, hatching, mortality, malformation, heartbeat, body length), indicating that R-, S-, and RS-PG exposures did not exhibit the basic developmental toxicity in zebrafish larvae. The toxicity of three enantiomers was lower than that of ethanol, and there was no significant difference between them. However, R-, S-, and RS-PG exposures with high doses could significantly change the eye diameter and locomotor activity of larval zebrafish, indicating that R-, S-, and RS-PG enantiomers of high doses could potentially exhibit the neurotoxicity and ocular developmental toxicity in zebrafish larvae. Therefore, the potential neurotoxicity and ocular developmental toxicity of R-, S-, and RS-PG enantiomers for infants and toddlers should be considered.

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Data availability

The obtained and analyzed data of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the collaborative project propylene glycol enantiomers toxicity assays (XDHT2020543A) from the OAMIC BIOTECH CO., LTD. (Lonemen Road, Haicang Xinyang Industrial Zone, Xiamen, China).

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  1. Chao Shen and Xijing Zhao are co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, China

    Chao Shen, Xijing Zhao, Chengyong He & Zhenghong Zuo

  2. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, China

    Zhenghong Zuo

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  1. Chao Shen
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  2. Xijing Zhao
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  3. Chengyong He
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Contributions

Chao Shen: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing–—original draft preparation, writing—reviewing and editing; Xijing Zhao: methodology, investigation; Chengyong He: supervision, validation, writing—reviewing and editing; Zhenghong Zuo: funding acquisition, project administration, resources, visualization, writing—reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Zhenghong Zuo.

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All experiments using zebrafish were performed according to the animal protocol approved by the guides of Animal Ethics Committee of Xiamen University.

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Shen, C., Zhao, X., He, C. et al. Developmental toxicity and neurotoxicity assessment of R-, S-, and RS-propylene glycol enantiomers in zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 30537–30547 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17538-8

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